The invention relates to the processing of fowl and more particularly to an apparatus for separating the neck of a headless plucked fowl hanging by the ankle joints from a hook of an overhead conveyor.
In preparing fowl for sale it is normal practice to separate the vertebrae of the neck together with the meat adhering thereto from the remaining part of the spinal column of the fowl, without removing the skin of the neck.
My British Patent Specification No. 1,473,555 discloses such a neck separating apparatus of the rotating type having a number of radially outwardly extending fork-shaped clamping members each adapted to receive the neck of a fowl suspended from the overhead conveyor which clamping members are each mounted for movement along with the conveyor and for vertical movement up and down relative to the fowl. Each clamping member has a pressure arm co-operating therewith and pivotally mounting with respect to the latter for movement between a rest position free of the fork opening of the clamping member and an operating position closing the fork opening and pressing the fowl's neck received in the clamping member to separate the vertebrae of the neck from the rest of the spinal column without damage to the skin of the neck. The clamping member together with the pressure arm are then moved downwards whereby the separated neck together with the meat adhering thereto is at least partially pulled out of the skin of the neck through the opening previously formed by the removal of the fowl's head.
Although this apparatus and others of the same kind generally operate efficiently, they have the disadvantage that the distance through which the separated neck is pulled out of the skin of the neck varies with the size of the fowl so that for fowls of great size the neck vertebrae will not be pulled out of the skin of the neck and for very small birds the neck vertebrae will be pulled too far out of the skin of the neck. The reason for this is the fact that the neck of the fowl is received in the fork opening of the clamping member in a low position of this member whereupon the clamping member is moved upwards whereby the fowl is supported at both sides of its neck by the clamping member and is lifted over a greater or smaller distance depending on the size of the fowl. In this manner it is obtained that independently of the fowl's size the neck is always separated as close as possible to the fowl's body when in the highest position of the clamping member the pressure arm is operated. On the following downward movement of the clamping member and the pressure arm the fowl must first be stretched in the hook of the conveyor in which it is suspended before sufficient pulling force can be exerted on the separated neck vertebrae to pull the latter out of the skin of the neck. This implies that the distance through which the neck vertebrae is pulled out of the skin of the neck is always equal to the distance between the highest and lowest position of the clamping member less the distance through which the fowl was first raised during the upward movement of the clamping member, and it will be clear that a larger fowl is further raised than a smaller one and that as a consequence the distance through which the neck is pulled out of the skin of the neck varies with the size of the fowl.